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The Lord Ruler's perfect capital city, Luthadel, is doing the impossible: rebelling. Skaa half-breeds are being taught the power of Allomancy, something that the Lord Ruler's obligators said only existed in the nobility. The enslaved skaa, with their murderous benefactor, now fight back against a living god's oppression.

So, the Inquisition was formed. The nobles begin to fear assassination from all sides. The times of nobility Mistborn killing each other are over. The Steel Inquisitors look for aristocrat traitors and insurgent skaa, and the skaa try with all their strength to merely survive. The Lord Ruler's perfect Final Empire is slowly devolving into chaos.

The skaa are building a quiet uprising, different from other rebellions. This is a well-managed insurgency, with a portion of it inside Luthadel itself. They have killed prominent noblemen, like Lucius Casuana, the leader of a newer Great House in the city. Killed with Allomancy, no less. The impending fear has caused the creation of the Inquisition. Nobles are beginning to feel fear.

A man named Ignas helped instigate this rebellion. An prelan at the Farmost Dominance once, he eventually learned that he was actually half-skaa, destroying his supremist perceptions against the skaa. With time, he became horrified at the Ministry, and subsequently organized a successful rebellion against the nobles and the Ministry in Farmost. This, of course, was covered up by the Lord Ruler. Now Ignas intends to do the same here at Luthadel.

One of his prominent bases of operations is Lan's tailor shop. One of Lan's apprentices, Maks, is a strategist for the rebellion. They are joined with an arrogant skaa Mistborn named Perrin, and they recently recruited Nessa--a Thug. And there are other skaa Allomancers, like Eriaan--who imitates a noblewoman--and Kayla, a Seeker, who seek entry into the Rebellion.

And the rebels plan to strike at the end of the week, at House Casuana's Ball, for it is weak now.

Mia Casuana, the current Head of the House, must work hard to show the other Houses it is still strong. After Lucius Casuana--her father-in-law--died last year, things had gotten bad for Julian and Mia. They had great difficulty keeping their House together, and the Inquisition did not help. A mere fifteen days ago, Julian hatched a plan to strike back at the skaa insurgents who killed his father, but in doing so, he needed to fake his own death. Now Mia leads this House, as there is no heir.

Making matters worse for her House, the Ministry wanted a huge sum of weapons from Casuana delivered very quickly, so much so that it forced Mia to break contract with House Venture and House Ewing [Look below for more information on House Ewing. It's owner is not returning]. Mia's cousin, Camille Deveaux--a secret Mistborn--was not pleased. House Deveaux had been attempting to ally with House Venture, but now Casuana has threatened those negotiations. Venture still somewhat wants to ally with Deveaux, but tensions are running high. A principal competitor in the weapons business, House Hasting, also threatens to strike at Casuana while it is still adjusting to new leadership.

So, Casuana is planning a Ball. For defense, Mia hopes to convince an Inquisitor to arrive, which should dissuade any enemy Mistborn to assassinate her. Thus for the nobles, Ball Casuana is a critical juncture. Will Casuana make ammends with Venture? Will Venture still make efforts to ally with Deveaux? If an alliance is made, it would be a massive victory for their collective mercantile endeavors, so will Hasting, allied with Tekiel, attempt to undo such an alliance? Will Hasting simply attack Casuana? Perhaps the wildcard is House Elariel, which takes no sides in this conflict. How will Elariel's actions influence the outcome?

But for the rebellion, things get much simpler: attack. The insurgents and Ignas have something frightening in store for the nobility. As a bonus, the rebellion hopes to recruit a separate organization of skaa rebels who work in the kitchen of Keep Casuana.

So, for those of you hoping to jump in to the plots and schemes of the nobility, here's a snapshot of the political situation. I don't summarize all of the plots here of course (there are too many!) but this should hopefully help to give people some sense of what is going on.

If you are interesting in figuring out the current political situation, I would recommend reading the Great House profiles, and the Inquisition notes for starters. Then, if you have more specific questions, you can ask them here. As for lesser houses, the best way to figure out what's up with them is to read their application, check out the index, or ask the player in charge.

A quick run down of the current Great House political situation (other heads of Great Houses, feel free to correct me if I get anything wrong):

Major Alliances:

Venture-Deveaux-Casuana

This is a powerful alliance, as it contains two of the top three Great Houses. Venture is crazy crazy rich, and they are the ones who finally pulled Sureau out of the top spot so they are not to be trifled with. Deveaux has been around for centuries, and is known for it's alomancy, so they are also incredibly dangerous. To round things out, while it is more lowly ranked, Casuana is a weapons house, meaning if a conflict arises, this faction will be well supplied.

Within Venture, the main political situation at the moment is dealing with the ramifications of Phyra Venture's assassination of Mikhail Elariel and her subsequent death, and the finalization of their alliance with Deveaux. Deveaux is looking to remain secure in their position while dealing with their old enemy, Sureau. Casuana is adjusting to life after the death of two lords within a year of each other, and to the rule of its new leader, Mia Casuana (nee Deveaux). The Casuanas have arguably been hit the hardest by the rebellion.

Sureau- Tekiel - Hasting - Fathvell

Sureau dominates this alliance. As the oldest great house, by far (even compared to Deveaux, who is quite a bit older than any of the other great houses), Sureau still has a lot of power, despite slipping in the ranks. Hasting is Sureau's staunchest ally, and is another weapons house, so watch out. Tekiel may be considering leaving this alliance and is the least stable member. Fathvell is a newer house, without much power in comparison to the other great houses, but it's close relationship with Lekal may mean it is looking for a way out of this domineering alliance as well.

Sureau is currently trying to do what it always does: destroy it's enemies at all costs. Right now, those enemies pretty much include every great house not in its coalition, but in particular Sureau wants an end to the power of Deveaux and Venture, and wants to punish Lekal for leaving the coalition. Tekiel is currently fairly quiet, but as their heir, Aldwin, is perceived to be an inadequate replacement for his father by some within the house, there may be trouble coming soon. Hasting is currently divided between two potential heirs, Colette (the daughter of Lord Sheldon), and Caden (Colette's bastard cousin). The two have been unable to best each other thus far, and with Sheldon's health failing, they will have to do something about that soon. Lastly, Fatvhell, as the newest great house, is mainly looking to stabilize their position within the city, and figure out which alliances they want to be a part of. Eliza, daughter of Lord Fathvell, was initially placed in Colette Hasting's social circle, but she has since become a supporter of Caden's.

Elariel - Raisaal

This is a secret alliance, as Elariel has an official policy of neutrality among the Great Houses. The alliance works nicely as Raisaal's military excellence covers a weak point of Elariel, while Elariel's considerable wealth and influence is great enough to rival any great house, except, perhaps, for Venture.

Raisaal is a fairly new great house, and has a symbiotic relationship with House Urbain. They two houses are interrelated, and when one falls, the other inevitably rises in its place. Due to Lord Urbain's disgrace by the Inquisition, House Urbain has recently fallen, so Raisaal is looking to stabilize it's position as a newer Great House. The heir, Lucar, and his twin, Umbra, were involved in a fire years ago while serving as anonymous hazekillers, and will be returning to society at the upcoming Elariel ball. Elariel has had a long standing neutrality policy among the great houses, and thrives in environments where it can play different factions against each other. This strategy mirrors what happens within the family, as different factions struggle against each other for power. Right now, the family is adjusting to the death of their heir, Mikhail Elariel, and the rise of his replacement, Aaron Elariel. Aaron has recently had a fallen out with his twin, Daerra (the leader of a faction), due to her involvement in Mikhail's death, while the rest of the keep is stirring over the return of Vivian Elariel, who vanished two years ago, having been mistakenly abducted by the Sureaus. Due to these recent events, Elariel's neutrality is in danger, and it must make a show of strength if it is going to maintain it, or fall back on its Raisaal alliance and forego the policy all together.

Lekal

Lekal is recovering from the vicious attacks it suffered from Sureau after leaving the coalition. While it has varying relationships with the other great houses (including a close alliance with Fathvell), it is currently not a part of any major alliance group.

There you have it. Of course, there are a variety of plots going on within each of these houses, but hopefully this overview, the profiles, and the Inquisition notes, can help you get started.